Henk van de Bunt

Organised crime, occupations and opportunity

This paper elaborates upon occupations, work relations, work settings, and their connection with organised crime activities. The analysis is based upon data from 120 case studies from the Dutch Organised Crime Monitor, involving 1623 suspects. The paper describes the different kinds of occupations encountered in cases of organised crime and the main characteristics of these occupations. Furthermore, the paper describes in more detail four cases of organised crime that illustrate the embeddedness of certain organised crime activities in work relations and work settings. Following Mars,1 the paper analyses both the grid dimension and the group dimension of certain occupations and work settings. The paper concludes that social relations as well as settings and opportunity structures provide structure to the organisation of many forms of crime, including organised crime.  1. Gerald Mars, Cheats at Work: An Anthropology of Workplace Crime (London: Unwin Paperbacks, 1982).

A case study on the misuse of hawala banking

Purpose - Since 9/11, Design/methodology/approach - The paper contains an analysis of 12 police files on the use of Findings - The literature emphasises the importance of trust between client and banker, as well as between Originality/value - The paper goes beyond the traditional focus on trust and strong social ties.

Traditional Organized Crime in the Modern World

Italian organized crime groups—namely, Cosa Nostra, the Camorra and the ‘Ndrangheta—have often been identified with the single name ‘‘mafia’’. However, despite some similarities especially in the business of private protection, Italian mafias present several differences which become asymmetries due to a centralized anti-mafia legislation and a centralized law enforcement and judicial system. They have had a different impact on criminal organizations with different cultures, traditions and power over the territory, as well as different regard by the State and civil society. After a brief outlook on the main features of the three criminal organizations and the changes they have experienced in the last decades, this chapter focuses on the broad spectrum of illegal activities conducted and the business opportunities exploited by each of them in order to highlight the main differences. On the basis of these differences, reactions of the State and the civil society are then examined, pointing out how the same legislation has had a different impact on the existence and the activities of the three Italian mafias. E. U. Savona (&) Department of Sociology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo A. Gemelli 1, 20123 Milan, Italy e-mail: ernesto.savona@unicatt.it E. U. Savona Joint Research Centre on Transnational Crime, Largo A. Gemelli 1, 20123 Milan, Italy D. Siegel and H. van de Bunt (eds.), Traditional Organized Crime in the Modern World, Studies of Organized Crime 11, DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4614-3212-8_1, Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012 3

Underground Banking in the Netherlands

In our recent publication on organized crime, to which Ernesto Savona contributed his insightful analysis of three Italian mafia groups, a range of authors address the ways in which criminal groups operate and make money in the 21st century. A question in this context that continues to fascinate criminologists concerns the international flows of criminal money.

The Bankruptcy of the Dutch Cannabis Policy: Time for a Restart

For many years, the Dutch cannabis policy was considered unique in the world and used as an example of how the issue of cannabis could be approached differently. The Netherlands liked to see itself as a role model, but, ironically, at a time when the Netherlands is overcome by doubts about the sustainability of the coffeeshop model, the country of Uruguay and several states in the USA, such as Colorado and Washington, have legalised the recreational use of cannabis. What are the problems with the Dutch policy? What lessons can be learned from the Dutch experience with tolerating the use of cannabis? In this contribution, the developments with regard to the Dutch cannabis policy will be described and critically assessed in relation to the initial aims and assumptions of this policy. Second, the authors focus on the developments regarding cannabis cultivation, coffeeshops and organized crime over the past 40 years.

Dynamics between denial and moral panic: The identification of convicted sex offenders in the community

In this contribution the authors describe the main findings of a research study conducted in the Netherlands on the return of sex-offenders to the community. The study questioned how crisis situations can develop following the identification of a sex-offender in the community. The study consisted of an analysis of ten cases in which the return of a convicted sex offender to the community or the ‘discovery’ of a sex-offender in the community resulted in community unrest and attracted media attention. Interviews were conducted with professionals involved in supervising those individuals convicted for sexual offences as well as the individuals themselves. Contrary to the situation in both the United States and the United Kingdom, criminal records in the Netherlands − as in most of continental Europe − are predominantly seen as a private matter and are not made public to those outside the criminal justice system. The article also examines the role of the local Mayor who has a central role in managing the local negative reactions to return of those convicted of sexual offences back into the community in the Netherlands. The findings produced from the data are analysed applying a social construction approach that utilizes the concepts of ‘moral panic’ and denial. The authors found that the return of a those convicted of sexual offences can lead to a range of responses varying from anger and panic to secrecy and denial. Ultimately the authors found that greater transparency led to more positive outcomes in these cases.